The year was 1958 and Rock and Roll had penetrated deep into middle America with a vengeance...it was a year when Chuck Berry released sweet little 16 and Johnny B Goode, Eddie Cochran scored with Summertime blues and Elvis's hit was Jailhouse Rock.Four high school students in a little town called Metamora, just outside of Peoria, Illinois caught the rock and roll bug.crazy baby story in progressThey formed a band, called themselves the rockin' r's and released this song, Mustang.tThe lead guitarist and singer/songwriter was Ron Volz."The first time I walked out on a stage and, those girls started screaming. You were hooked."The rockin' r's were the biggest thing to ever hit Metamora or Peoria... and it led to a spot on American Bandstand, and opening for big time national acts when they came around like Gene Vincent and the blue caps."We did a show with him, I think at les buzz ballroom in LaSalle or St Louis. We did the shows with Conway Twitty and Bill Haley and the Comets, which was already a big deal but I mean Gene Vincent, he had this one move Ron where he would, he would slam the microphone to here, swing his leg over the top of the mic and come around down on one knee. What a strategic move. Took your breath away. How did the guy pull that off?"Inspired, the Rockin R's packed their automobiles with boxes and boxes of their records to sell and they went out on tour... Their hit record was The Beat. On the flip side, a song they didn't really think that much about at the time, a song called "Crazy Baby"...."Oh, I wrote it from my wife for Bess we can understand. We, uh, when we met, she was 14. I was 17. That was 1958 I guess.We were married in 61. So we've been married 50 some years. Same woman, you know, but I wrote it for her because she was, she was the rebellious one in her family. I mean, you're going to date a musician, are you crazy?"Eventually, the rockin' R's career faded but a lot of those records they sold survived. One day an up and coming rocker with his own band called the Blasters were out on tour in Oklahoma City and Phil Alvin happened across a copy of Crazy Baby."I had $15 and we went into a thrift store and I was looking through records and I saw Crazy Baby. I bought it just because of the title. When I got it home I played it and it was great so we started doing it immediately. It's a great song."That was about 1978, twenty years after Ron Volz wrote crazy babySomehow, even though he never authorized it, the song found it's way onto several rock a billy compilation albums and now a new generation of rock and roll fans dance to Ron Volz's love letter to his teenage sweethart.Ron Volz loves that people love his song, laughs that he never saw any royalties, and says, you know what? He married that girl he wrote it for, so that's his reward. the end.Now 60 years later, it's still being played. ... the blasters put their version of it on their first album, now 40 years later, the song's still in their set listRon Volz can laugh now that he never saw any royalties from Crazy baby, but he married the girl in the song, the queen of his heart, and he says that's the royalty that matters the most.I'm Ron Brown, you're listening to Rivet.

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